ARKit

GDC 2019 kicks off today, and one of the big announcements from the first day involves Angry Birds, which will soon be making the jump to augmented reality. Today, Rovio and Resolution Games announced Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs, which is something of a follow up to the virtual reality game of the same name. While Angry Birds is a franchise that's seen a ton of releases over the years, augmented reality could give us a fresh spin on its age-old gameplay.

The start of 2020 might well be the most exciting in years from an Apple fan's perspective. A prominent - and usually quite accurate - analyst by the name of Ming-Chi Kuo suggested Apple will likely release their first AR glasses in the second quarter of the year 2020. This will be an accessory, not a self-contained piece of hardware, according to the analyst - at least in its first edition.

Apple never really jumped on the virtual reality bandwagon, even when smartphone-powered VR headsets and experiences exploded for a short while. Instead, Apple is putting its eggs in the augmented reality basket, going as far as saying it is the future. Now it has taken one concrete step closer to that future by moving long-time iPhone executive Frank Casanova to handle its product marketing for all things related to augmented reality.

Shopping for glasses is something that typically needs to be done in person, as you generally want to see how a set of frames both fits and looks on your face. With the rise of augmented reality, though, the process of trying on a pair of glasses is something that could be done anywhere, anytime. That's what Warby Parker thinks at least, as it's rolled out a new feature for its iPhone app that allows you to try on glasses without having to first head into a brick and mortar store.

It would appear as though Apple acquired a company by the name of Spektral at the tail end of the year 2017. This Danish group specialized in the isolation of objects in both still and moving images (and video), removing background elements from said objects in real time. This company previously aimed to create cloud-based applications and a Photoshop plugin - now it's inside Apple proper.

Apple is using machine learning to make augmented reality objects more realistic in iOS 12, using smart environment texturing that can predict reflections, lighting, and more. The new feature, being added in ARKit 2.0, uses on-device processing to better integrate virtual objects with their real-world counterparts, blurring the lines between what's computer-generated and what's authentic.

Apple's multi-player support for augmented reality experiences will support more than just the two-player games the company showed off during the WWDC 2018 keynote, with ARKit 2.0 in iOS 12 bringing unexpectedly comprehensive - and private - ways to use AR. Debuting on the iPhone and iPad later this year, iOS 12's updated augmented reality system will depend on new, persistent scans of the real world that Apple will allow devices to securely share.

Today we're having a peek at all the new features revealed by Apple for iPhone X (and a few other devices) for augmented reality. Apple suggested they'd worked with Pixar, of all the places, to develop a new file format for all things AR. That new file format is USDZ, and it's made to work with multiple apps. "It's something like AR Quick Look." said Craig Federighi.

This morning Apple posted several videos to YouTube before WWDC 2018. The event generally holds information largely aimed at developers, but occasionally shows new bits and pieces of information for consumers. In today's presentation, we're expecting a variety of software bits as well as a POSSIBILITY - not a great possibility, but a possibility - of some hardware. But before that, Apple's released a set of teasers with all the information we need to see what's up.

Apple, wary of augmented reality's potential for privacy headaches, is developing an update to its AR system that would allow multiplayer experiences without requiring the cloud, it's reported. The company is believed to be investing significantly into ARKit, its platform that allows developers to integrate digital graphics into the real world and have them co-exist and even interact, with long-standing rumors of an Apple smartglasses system in the pipeline.

Virtual reality and, to a lesser extent, augmented reality have the connotation of mostly being about entertainment. The current selection of VR and AR experiences, plus the media and buzz surrounding them, do reinforce that misconception. That is why proponents like Google are trying to push new experiences that give these technologies a more serious tone. Like AR Expeditions, a "spinoff" of its VR-centric Google Expeditions, that utilize augmented reality for educational purposes. It might not be a game, but it can still be just as fun.

All iPhone devices able to run ARKit can now play Holochess from the Star Wars universe. This is the game most famously played onboard the Millennium Falcon by R2-D2 and Chewbacca - but it also appeared in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and in analog format in Rogue One. Now, thanks to Lenovo, we're able to play anywhere.